Damn the Queens: a game by the Nemec’s

The goal

You and your partner score points by laying down sets of matching cards. Cards left in your hand cost you points. The first team to reach the target score (1,000 unless you choose another) wins.

4 playersTwo teams of two. Partners sit across from each other and share their sets.

108 cardsTwo decks with no 2s, 8 wilds in their place, and 4 jokers.

13 cards eachOne card is turned face up to start the discard pile. The rest is the draw pile.

First to 1,000Or pick 500 up to 5,000 when you set up the table.

How to play

Your turn

Every turn follows the same three steps:

Draw a card from the draw pile, or pick up the entire discard pile (see the next section).
Lay down sets if you want to, and add cards to your team’s sets.
Discard one card face up on the discard pile. That ends your turn.

You never have to lay down a set unless you picked up the pile. Holding cards back can be a smart way to time going out.

Picking up the discard pile

Only the top card of the pile is visible. You can take the whole pile if:

you hold two natural cards of the top card’s rank, or one natural plus a wild, and
your team does not already have that rank laid down.

You must immediately lay down a set made of the top card and those two cards. Everything else in the pile goes into your hand. If the top card is a wild, you can still take the pile with any two matching natural cards, and the wild joins them in the set.

The game picks natural cards over wilds whenever it can, so you don’t spend a wild you don’t need to.

Sets, wilds and jokers

A set is three or more cards of the same rank.
A set can hold at most one wild. Ace, Ace, Wild is fine. Ace, Wild, Wild is not.
A set needs at least two natural cards.
You can drop a wild onto any set that doesn’t have one yet, at any time during your turn.
Once a set is down, you or your partner can add matching cards to it. No new three of a kind is needed.
Jokers are not wild. They are just worth a lot of points, and three jokers can make a set.

Discarding and blockers

You can’t discard a card your team already has down. Add it to the set instead. The Auto button does this for you.
If you discard a rank the other team has down, they can’t pick up the pile and must draw. That’s a blocker, and it’s usually the best discard you can make.
A player with only one card can’t pick up the pile at all, since it takes two cards.
Think twice before discarding a Joker, an Ace or the Queen of Spades. Someone may be waiting to grab it.

Going out

The round ends the moment any player has no cards left. That can happen by laying down, adding to a set, discarding, or picking up the pile with your last cards. The game warns everyone when a player is down to one card.

Scoring a round

Each team scores the value of the cards on its sets.
The team that did not go out subtracts the value of the cards still in its players’ hands.
The team that went out subtracts nothing, even if the partner still holds cards.

At the end of each round you’ll see each team’s breakdown and how many points every player contributed.

Card values

Card	Points
Queen of Spades (there are two)	100
Joker (there are four)	50
Ace	20
10, Jack, King, other Queens	10
Wild	10
3 through 9	5

Tips

Grab the pile when you can. It’s almost always in your favor, and since everyone is blocking each other, big piles often have plenty you can play right away.

Watch what the other team has down. Those ranks are free, safe discards for you.

Don’t get caught holding points. When an opponent is down to a card or two, dump your big cards.

Playing online

Tap Play now. One person taps Start a new game and chooses the score to play to.
Share the invite link. Everyone else opens it, enters a name and a phone number, and takes a seat.
Not enough players? Add bots to fill the table.
Tap Deal the cards and play. You can chat, and if it’s your turn and you’re not there, the others can text you.

You can close the app and come back later. The game keeps your seat and picks up where you left off.